Punishing A Whistle-blower

State government is paying a steep price for its misguided efforts to punish a whistle-blower.

A jury recently awarded $216,000 to Adrienne LaMorte, a former state trooper, when it concluded she was transferred after complaining that her supervisor may have botched numerous lie-detector tests.

This was no trifling matter. Testimony in the case indicated that many people had doubts about the competence of Sgt. Randolph Howell, who remains in charge of the state police polygraph unit. His performance casts doubt on the reliability of numerous tests in criminal cases.

When she was a state trooper, Ms. LaMorte complained to her superiors that in numerous cases Mr. Howell concluded that a suspect was being truthful when the polygraph test results indicated otherwise. Several of the cases involved suspects accused of sexually abusing children.

According to testimony, Mr. Howell flunked his courses in polygraph training school 12 years ago but was allowed to pass anyway. Another trooper who worked in the unit said Mr. Howell's performance was so poor that he should not have been allowed to perform any more tests. Yet, when Ms. LaMorte complained, she was transferred in an apparent attempt to silence her.

Clearly, Connecticut needs tougher laws to protect whistle-blowers, who perform a public service when they report corruption and incompetence.

As a result of this case, Mr. Spada belatedly introduced a rule that all future disciplinary transfers must be approved by the commissioner.

When Leonard C. Boyle takes over as commissioner next week, he ought to reopen the Howell matter and determine for himself if state police should have a more qualified -- and more credible -- head of the sensitive polygraph unit.

Better still, Mr. Boyle ought to set a good standard by rewarding, not punishing, whistle-blowers.